If BioWare had shown Kelly in the trailers for the Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC, I’d be pissed — because they completely left her out of the final product. I’m still pissed, but I’d be even more pissed if they had my hopes up.

A (somewhat) similar issue occurred with Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game was possibly the worst game ever made (in 2013). Our own review called it “an embarrassment that should never have been released”.

This was particularly cutting because the work in progress demonstration trailer had previously showed a far better game. Some gamers were so riled up that they launched a class action lawsuit against Sega and Gearbox for false advertising.

Opinion around the interwebs has been divided. While most players support the lawsuit, some just aren’t sure whether it has a chance of succeeding. Today, we’ll be looking at whether the Aliens: Colonial Marines pre-release demonstration trailer was false advertising enough to give grounds for a lawsuit.

Is it advertising?

First up, we need to get away from the idea that there is actually a distinction between a game demonstration and an advertisement. In Australia, false advertising standards are broad, and apply to everything a business does. The ACCC writes:

“The ‘do not mislead’ principle applies to all commercial dealings. It is not only advertising that can potentially mislead. The principle covers any kind of commercial dealing—for example, selling presentations, product descriptions, packaging, contract terms, negotiating, representations—where a message is sent that creates or is likely to create the wrong idea or wrong impression on the part of the recipient.”

Under Australian law, a demonstration at a convention could indeed be capable of being illegally misleading. But whether such a finding actually leads to a penalty, or simply a slap on the wrist, is really a question of what damage was actually caused to the buyers. Under American law, this question is even more relevant: the demonstration needs to have misled the buyer to the extent they made a mistaken purchase.

Therefore, our next step is to consider what part the demonstration played in convincing people to buy the game.

The hype problem

False advertising is usually cut and dry. You write on the packaging of a breakfast snack that it contains essential vitamins and minerals, when in actuality it contains radioactive ooze. Or (more commonly) the snack contains so little vitamins that they give no dietary value. In both cases, the customer was enticed to make a purchase by a benefit that didn’t exist.

Games introduce a thorny issue because so much of what convinces people to buy is not traditional advertising. It’s hype. Games are heralded by a deluge of previews, gameplay demonstration trailers, teasers, viral marketing, developer interviews, and convention showings.

All these are important for at least creating awareness in the gaming press. This exposure builds up until people are convinced that the game is worth buying. Without the pre-release demonstration trailer, Aliens: Colonial Marines would have had much less exposure, and therefore, less sales.

This was recognised, at least, when in response to the Colonial Marines controversy, Sega was ordered to put “work in progress” notices more prominently on its demonstration materials. Therefore, there is clearly “a” problem. But whether this means gamers are entitled to damages also depends on whether the demonstration actually misled them to lose money.

The pre-order problem

The key moment for deciding this case is the point at which gamers handed over money, and what led them to do so. Aside from Kickstarter (which has its own problems with this), gaming is perhaps the only industry that lets you buy something before it even exists.

In the comments on one of our news articles, an example was given of a concept car demonstration. However, no one hands over money based on seeing a concept car at a show. Advertisements are there to entice a person to enter the showroom and take a test drive. False advertising cannot occur at the concept car stage, because this is not accepted to be reliable.

In contrast, many people do buy games based on pre-order hype. This was certainly the case with Colonial Marines. The problem was exacerbated by Gearbox not keeping its pre-release gameplay footage current after they knew they had a serious problem.

Although this has not really been tested in a court, these issues make the gaming hype roughly equivalent to more traditional advertising. Arguably, the gamers that were enticed to pre-order based on this footage (even if they should have waited for reviews) are entitled to some compensation.

The vertical slice problem

Gearbox’s comment on the lawsuit is quite… angry.

“Attempting to wring a class action lawsuit out of a demonstration is beyond meritless,” was their response. “We continue to support the game, and will defend the rights of entertainers to share their works-in-progress without fear of frivolous litigation.”

Ouch. The problem with this attitude is that the trailer does not appear to be a true work in progress. Given the sheer quality difference between the trailer and the final game, it’s clear that the trailer was a “vertical slice”: a marketing creation filled with custom textures, animation, sounds, and sequences that were never intended to go into the final game at all.

These slices divert resources from the actual game, because their sole purpose is to invent something pretty that can be used to drive hype. Possibly, if the developers had spent the time on the actual game instead of their marketing creation, the game wouldn’t have been such a disaster.

That is really a separate legal issue and one more suited to an epic battle between Gearbox and Sega. However, it does come back to the point of false advertising laws. False advertising is prohibited because marketing is not meant to cover the flaws of a product so brazenly: consumers are entitled to make purchases based on true merits. When a vertical slice has such a huge difference with the final game, this is exactly the kind of thing that false advertising laws are trying to stop.

As such, on principle the lawsuit is worth bringing — at least as a test case. There are interesting issues about whether hype can be advertising, and whether these laws can extend this far.

But even these aside, the point worth proving is that developers should not spend half their budget on marketing hype in an attempt to secure pre-orders.

SEGA and Gearbox have now responded to yesterday’s news of a class-action lawsuit being brought against them for false advertising over Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Gearbox’s comment says that “Attempting to wring a class action lawsuit out of a demonstration is beyond meritless.”

“We continue to support the game, and will defend the rights of entertainers to share their works-in-progress without fear of frivolous litigation.”

Meanwhile, SEGA’s own statement is somewhat less combative, but says: “SEGA cannot comment on specifics of ongoing litigation, but we are confident that the lawsuit is without merit and we will defend it vigorously.”

Source: IGN via llllTrooperllll

We all knew it was coming, and here it is: today brings the news that a man named Damion Perrine has filed a class-action lawsuit in the state of California against both Gearbox and SEGA, alleging false advertising over the marketing of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

The suit claims that the companies used trade shows like E3 and PAX to falsely demonstrate a product that they knew to what would be delivered to the end user, citing claims by people such as Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford that what was being shown was “actual gameplay” as evidence of deliberate misinformation.

The filing, obtained by Polygon, goes on to allege that by enforcing an embargo on content of the day of launch, Gearbox and SEGA conspired to keep the press from revealing just how truly awful the game was until it was too late for consumers to make an informed decision. Indeed, in our own review we called the game “an embarrassment that should never have been released,” which isn’t the sort of language we would generally use.

“We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers,” commented the lawyers handling the case. “If companies like SEGA and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision.”

Source: Polygon

In the wake of one of the worst game launches in history, SEGA has reportedly been ordered by the British Advertising Standards Agency to add disclaimers to their Aliens: Colonial Marines trailers.

The letter from the ASA comes by way of this reddit thread, where user subpar dave wrote to the governing body to express his displeasure at the misrepresentative trailers.

SEGA Europe‘s YouTube channel now includes the following line on their A:CM videos: “The trailer footage shown uses the in-game engine, and represents a work in progress.”

SEGA and the ASA have not commented formally on the matter.

Source: Blue’s News

Gearbox have announced a massive patch for the PC version of Aliens: Colonial Marines, which brings high-resolution textures, improved graphics, and the addition of mouse smoothing to what was generally a very poorly-received title.

The patch also addresses a number of bugs and crashes across both the campaign and multiplayer, including the marine invincibility exploit, and improved collision detection. Check out the full patch notes below:

General

• Improved texture resolution.
• Various visual improvements.
• Added mouse smoothing to options menu.
• Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker.
• Added additional safeguards to better protect save data.
• Resolved an issue where a player’s level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party.
• Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon.
• Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics.
• Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow.
• Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets.
• Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations.
• Increased light radius for player’s shoulder lamp.
• Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input.
• Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances.
• Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly.
• Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit.
• Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps.
• Addressed an issue where Ripley’s Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input.
• Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly.
• Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly.
• General user interface improvements.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Campaign

• Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive.
• Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness.
• Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader.
• Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players.
• Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives.
• Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.

Versus

• Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics.
• Addressed instances where a map would appear to “pop in” when loading into a new match.
• New Xeno appearance customization added.
• Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds.
• Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge “Cat-Like Reflexes” from 10 to 20 seconds.
• Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters.
• Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.

Source: Gearbox

In the wake of an impressively poor critical reception for Aliens: Colonial Marines, Gearbox’s outsourced-developer Timegate have issued layoffs affecting around 25 of their staff.

Speaking to Polygon, TimeGate president Adel Chavele said that “today, we had to make the difficult decision to let go of some great game developers. This is never easy, and we’re doing all we can to assist those developers affected.”

“TimeGate is preparing, as is the entire industry, for the transition to next-generation consoles and new business models. As part of this reinvention, all projects and strategic initiatives continue to move forward at the studio.”

Polygon is reporting that an internal source claims the layoffs are related to a publishing contract falling through — which many are speculating is likely connected to the poor reception of Colonial Marines.

Source: Polygon

The saga of “What The Hell Happened to Make Aliens: Colonial Marines So Terrible” rolls on, with a reveal over the weekend from an anonymous SEGA employee who claims that Gearbox quite literally stole money from SEGA to use on Borderlands.

An entire new blog has been set up by the name of ‘SEGA Awakens’, and Destructoid are claiming that they’ve independently verified the source behind it. The blogger, writing as “Bryan Danielson”, claims that “most of the information posted online is 99% true”, and that “Gearbox stole from SEGA, they robbed us, lied to us about the game, and tried to get another company to make the game instead.”

The post goes on to claim that Gearbox used the money SEGA gave them for Aliens: Colonial Marines to fund Borderlands instead, and that they then used the profits from that to grab the 3DRealms team and finish the development of Duke Nukem Forever, another poorly-received launch.

“So Gearbox essentially lied to SEGA, mishandled funds, broke agreements and contractual obligations to work on other projects, didn’t want to work on a game they were contractually obligated to work on and gave it to another team, poor organization and direction on ACM, took on too many projects from different companies at once, and other things that we may not even know about. Hell, part of me believes that Gearbox wanted this thing delayed as much as possible so they can get more funding money to embezzle from SEGA,” continues the post.

While the author believes legal action against Gearbox may be impossible as it has probably technically fulfilled its contract, he predicts job losses at SEGA as a result of the fallout from this and claims that “by all rights, Borderlands 1 and 2 should be a SEGA published game, since they got the money from us to fund the game, and since those games are smash hits, our jobs here at SEGA would be more secure and just having those two games, the SEGA brand might be on a path to being revived somewhat.”

Source: SEGA Awakens and Destructoid

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The xenomorph dropped off the rooftop above as the steam venting from the broken pipe obscured Joker’s vision. He was reloading at the time, sprinting away from the other bullet riddled, acid leaking messes that he’d managed to barely fend off with sustained fire from the pulse rifle he carried. He heard the ‘thunk’ of its talons as they touched on the metal flooring, but he could not see it, and knew he was doomed – when there was a sudden, blast of sustained fire somewhere behind him, precise and accurate, and the xeno reared up out of the steam with a shriek, not of pain but of rage that it had failed to rip its victim limb from limb, holes blasted through its weird, elongated head as it collapsed in a heap.

The motion sensor was quiet, then, as Nemesis stepped through the gas, gun over his shoulder, armour acid-burned, his expression, as always, a mixture of smug arsehole and amicability. “You’re welcome!” He barked at his friend, then, set off into the darkness, trying to escape the compromised starship.

So then. You bought Aliens: Colonial Marines, didn’t you? I know some of you did. Own up. There is no shame here, no judgements. We are all brought together by our pain, born of our hope, and made all that more terrible when we now know it was a hope misguided.

The reviews speak the truth. It’s not a good game. It’s not even mediocre, most of the time. It descends into outright bad all too often. And let’s not get started on the sheer awfulness of the graphical downgrade the game got somewhere along the line. It’s bad. We all know this – at least, now we do.

But some of us saw the Green Man Gaming deal. Some of us had hope. Some of us believed. And regardless of commentary made of how foolish such a silly thing is, it happens. So now, some of us have a game we don’t really want to play, and would rather forget. Fair enough.

But surely, I say, there must be some way to enjoy this game… right?

I’ll admit, I started playing before I saw the reviews. Before I saw the reviews, the game wasn’t good – but I wasn’t exactly hating it. I was playing it out of a sense of blind nostalgia I guess. But I was doing something else- I was playing it co-op, with voice chat, with a friend.

And we had decided to play it in character.

The corridors were dark, and cramped. Looking around the ruined base of Hadley’s hope, Nemesis wondered how the hell it had survived the blast – as well as thinking how in the hell they were supposed to hold it. Using the motion sensor to track their path, leaving nothing to chance, Joker stood at his side with shotgun raised – for close encounters, he’d said, but with the way the blood of the damn things sprayed everywhere, it was more like playing Russian roulette – then came that now familiar hiss, the rasp of claws and iron hard skin scraping over metal, and it all started again, the howls and shrieks as they opened up and turned the walls to slag as they dissolved the onrushing horde.

“Real nice party, ain’t it!” He shouted to his buddy over the din. Joker ran out of ammunition on the shotgun, and threw it at the nearest enemy bouncing it off a shiny black head, before pulling out the sidearm. “Ah, shaddup!”

Adopting corny midwest American accents (we’re both pretty damn good at it, but I tend to have a bit southern drawl to my words) we became Corporal ‘Joker’ Watt and Private ‘Nemesis’ Maloney (what a stretch!) and proceeded to play this game as a pair of badass marines in a badass crew of badassitude.

Lines from the film made their way into the game swiftly – “I don’t know dude, I just work here,” and “Want some? Here’s some! Oh you too, **** you!!” making their presence felt. And we made some new ones too. Joker was a grizzled, no nonsense veteran with a powerfully cynical sense of humour about things. Nemesis was… well, he was an arsehole. Making horrible commentary about certain characters impending doom, and ridiculing the efforts of others who did a poor job – effin’ rookies, etc. When the human enemies turned up, they were dismissed as ‘greenhorn weekend warriors’ who couldn’t stand up to a concentrated flank manoeuvre. Which sounded much, much nicer than ‘horrible A.I who couldn’t identify a threat even if it kicked them in the ass yelling “surprise!!”‘ I played him as that guy who, in every horror or action movie, is a jerk and the audience waits for them to die. JOKE’S ON YOU, I’M GONNA SURVIVE THIS, HAHA PLOT TWIST.

And you know what? We had fun. It was a stretch at times, but there was fun. And it was had. We were both astonished at this. And then proceeded to ham it up to the tune of eleven.

O’Neal gave the pair a narrow eyed look, as they jumped up and down on a particularly obtuse xenomorph which had deigned to appear out of nowhere on the pair, most unexpectedly considering their normal tactic to charge in a convenient straight line right into gunfire.

“So why are you guys giving yourself call signs? Ain’t that for the airforce rather than the pukes?”

Nemesis gave him a grin, while Joker kicked the xeno one last time, his boots melting away, but caring not one bit in the face of his furious revenge. “It’s cause we’re cool, O’Neal. Cool names for cool guys. I’m sure you can get your head around that.”

O’Neal was nonplussed. “What about me? What name you going to give me?” Nemesis chuckled. “Buddy, you’ve got a smartgun, and you can’t hit a goddamn thing. Sorry man – but you are not cool. You get nothing.”

One thing we were united in was hanging piles of excrement upon our team mates. Some might call this typical military behaviour. In our case, it was because we were jerks. But it was okay, because those guys sucked. I mean, a guy with a smartgun – mo’ liek smartFUN. At least, it’s supposed to be. I held down that trigger with a roar of glee at a couple of points and I carpeted the world in corpses. But O’Neal was there for sound effects. He didn’t contribute a damn. But at least he was better than the others, particularly one character who, from the get go, we looked at and said, ‘yep, dead.’ Guess what? We were right. In some cases, I was a ghastly individual. But with such cardboard cutout characters, it wasn’t like we were hurting real people. Not even things that vaguely resembled real people! So, all was well.

“Oh, that does it. Can we go home now?” Joker said disgustedly as the acid flew overhead, eating into stone and metal. “Spitting. I mean, come on. Really?”

“Shut up and shoot the damn things!” Nemesis snapped, shooting, and dancing between the sizzling bolts. Joker sighed, theatrically, and opened up from behind cover, which was already dissolving around him. “At least they’re not the size of a tank!” He shouted back as he sent one shrieking black form falling into the abyss.

The most peculiar thing about inhabiting these characters we had made, however, came from the fact that it allowed us, however lightly, to completely overlook the glaring continuity and canonical errors that were made.

The new types of alien in the game are there for one reason, and one reason only – to put in a half assed effort at making up for the fact that they A.I for the xenomorphs was, sometime between E3 and this, neutered. Where we should have been fighting superfast, flexible, agile death machines, we were killing heaps of them. I wanted, nay, needed there to be one hit tail impalement kills, I wanted co-op not to be an option but a necessity, where one player screamed out distance and quantity of target on radar while others tried to cover all the angles. I wanted fear. And I didn’t get it.

But the character did.

Thinking at it from his perspective, from this nublet of a marine with no external universe knowledge, or knowledge of the xeno’s practically at all, made the changes somehow possible to swallow. Somehow. The inexplicable variations of the xeno’s were still inexplicable – they were there, but the marines not only didn’t know how they got there, they didn’t even care how they got there. They were just trying to survive! Nothing else really mattered. So while we debated and questioned and wondered what the hell was going on as longtime fans of the Xeno that were watching our favourite monster AGAIN being butchered by a dumbass crew with money and either no passion or simply misdirected idiocy, our in-game personas couldn’t give two hoots as long as they made it out alive.

It was stupid. It was simple. And it was hilariously good fun. We put real fear in our voices, in our shouts, our ‘Oo-rah’s', our battle cries. We were kicking tail and having a good time. Was it worth the price of admission? Probably not. Was it the Aliens game we deserved, or even the one we’d been told we would get? HELL NO. But was it possible, just a little, to still have fun with it? We found that it was.

So if you’re one of the suckers who found yourself with this game — throw on your helmets, stick that chin out and get yourself a crew cut. Play the game not as yourself, not as an observer, but as a part of a crew of ultimate badasses, with friends. Share the pain. If you don’t fall over laughing at how bad you are in in the first five minutes, stick with it – and you might be surprised at the results.

Oh, but one last thing. Don’t buy it, if you haven’t already. This is strictly for the poor suckers like me, who ‘did’ buy it because they trusted in a lie. This is to help those poor buggers who got it, and are stuck with it. But just to be clear — if you haven’t got it yet, this game doesn’t deserve your money. They would have to have made the game they promised and previewed, to get that.

As the fallout from Aliens: Colonial Marines‘ poor critical reception continues, a developer has spoken to Destructoid anonymously to claim that Gearbox lied to publishers SEGA over the outsourcing of development to Timegate.

“Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1,” claims the former developer.

“This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] ‘Finally, we’re going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we’re going to ship a f**king game!’ Hah.”

The developer also claims that Gearbox lied to both SEGA and 2K about the number of people working on Aliens and Borderlands, yet continued to collect money from SEGA as if the game’s development was going smoothly. SEGA caught wind of what was going on and allegedly temporarily cancelled the project. This is apparently what led to Gearbox issuing a round of layoffs in 2008.

We called Aliens: Colonial Marines “an embarrassment that should never have been released“, which isn’t a nice thing to say, but… well, there you have it, really.

Source: Destructoid

Because I try not to be mean even when someone is being mean to me, let us just say that Aliens: Colonial Marines is somewhat… divisive. In that it has divided the patience of many an expectant fan. You can’t win ‘em all, although some people like it. That is cool for them and their happiness is my happiness.

More people do not, though. Metacritic collate-paints a fairly unflattering picture, and I must admit that after less than ten minutes with it I had the same impulse that I’m sure lots of other peoples did: I just wanted to find Randy Pitchford and ask him why.

What happened? Why are the aliens drunk? Why can I put a silencer on my pulse rifle? Why are the textures from the Jurassic period and why can’t the game recognise a graphics card I’ve had for two-hundred years? Look into my eeeeeyeeee.

Subsequently, a lot of backroom details we’re not ordinarily privvy to started to surface: ACM had been in production at Gearbox for six years, continually pushed back in favour of Borderlands 2 until Sega began to suggest legal action was in order.

There’s a very interesting account of all that on Reddit by an alleged former employee.

Nothing will make a publisher (or anyone) move faster than the law, so Gearbox reportedly outsourced the bulk of the game’s dev-work to Section 8 studio TimeGate in a last-ditch effort to stave off Phoenix Wright.

Sega would go on to contradict Gearbox themselves and deny this, but it’s a spurious denial at best. This is not the handiwork of the men and women who gave us Pandora to play on.

ACM is not just a window into the tumultuous juggling act of publishers, studios, big expectations and bigger licenses, but also into the nature of the games press. This guy has clearly not, in my opinion, actually played the game. That is not an assumption, it is clear and present fact: the vagaries of everything he mentions were all covered to the exact same hollow extent in every bit of preview coverage ever.

I don’t believe he was “paid off” but rather that he banked, like so many of us did, on ACM being a great game and thought yeah, let’s get those clicks early. Beyond unethical, but if he’d been right, no disservice would’ve been rendered (that you knew of).

Unfortunately for him, no one could’ve predicted this, and further to that is the fact nobody has been able to convincingly answer why ACM seemingly got worse during development and not better. This video, hey. You’ve seen it, but it’s still a mind-fry:

Development, press, and also the press as given by the developers themselves has not been spared by ACM. Randy Pitchford has worked as a magician IRL and some are starting to feel he’s still an illusionist over at Gearbox too. It’s true, he talked up some things that were simply not in the game (slashed, so they say) and the demo he flaunted in his pre-show runs at the media (see above) looked a lot more impressive than what hit storefronts. Death threats are taking it a little far.  Don’t do that.

I interviewed Randy, in person, prior to the game’s release. He genuinely loves Aliens. He does. He knew more about its intricacies than anyone in that room. Not stuff media training would teach you; stuff a fan from way back would know. He looked like a big sad kid when he told me ACM director Brian Martell got to meet Ridley Scott to talk LV-426 and he didn’t. The passion is there and real, but Pitchford works with what he’s got, like any CEO stretched thin.

The whole thing has shone such a piercing light on just about all sectors of the industry it feels like it might actually have been good for something in that context. Gearbox are still suffering tremendous backlash and no doubt will for some time, but all’s not completely lost for ACM itself – because you know who’s going in to save the marines who went in to save the other marines? You guys are.

Click here for our Aliens: Colonial Marines review, and click here for our editor’s thoughts on Aliens: Colonial Marines as our ‘Game of the Month’.

Header image courtesy David Rayfield.

Five years ago, I visited Gearbox Software’s Dallas headquarters for the first reveal of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

During that trip, what struck me most was the passion on display for the Aliens franchise. Studio head Randy Pitchford beamed as he showed us around the studio, pointing out walls festooned with Aliens artwork and espousing the importance of doing right by the hotly-revered universe. At the time, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway was the studio’s flagship title, poised to release later in the year. However, tucked into a corner of the three stories that Gearbox took up was a busy little team working on a small passion project with the working title of Borderlands.

Oh, how things have changed. Something that I wrote about that trip sticks out, now that Colonial Marines has released to widespread disdain and downright shock. During the preview we were shown several clips of what we were told was gameplay.

Here’s what I wrote about one of them: “Immediately impressive in this situation is the way that the Aliens move. They’re fast and agile and do not conform to using predictable AI paths. In fact, you’re almost hypnotised by the way that they leap around the level, grabbing onto pillars before leaping to the ground and attacking your beleaguered squad by whipping their tails and slashing their claws. Being so fast, it’s hard to get an accurate bead with your weapon. You’re literally crapping your pants hoping that you can hold off against the hordes, hoping that the turret can kill a few or that your explosive charge can take out as many as possible.”

The Colonial Marines installed now on my computer, the one that I just played, makes a liar out of me.

It’s obvious now that the game shown to me years ago and the one on store shelves now are two completely different things. One is the product of a passionate team being handed their dream project, complete with original scripts, artwork and sound archives; the other is an abortion kicked out under duress by a company focused solely on its new main franchise. I don’t even know if (as stated during interviews on the press trip) Battlestar Galactica writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle were eventually involved – the finished product would suggest not.

The opening scene is a cringe-worthy hoo-ah mixture of testosterone and “chicks and dicks” dialogue, with Generic Marine Leader 1 jumping up onto a powerloader to deliver his short inspirational speech. The game screams “LOOK, we are doing ALIENS!” at every opportunity. Nothing is embedded; everything is stark.

Initially, Colonial Marines doesn’t seem too bad. Opened facehugger pods litter the floor, building slight tension from inbuilt knowledge of what they contained, while acid holes in the Sulaco’s deck present a clumsy yet not entirely unsuccessful hand at mise-en-scène. You’re told how to bring up the motion tracker and the dread-laden ping gives you hope of messy close encounters.

But then things go wrong. Level design feels like it is stymying you not out of deliberate pacing obfuscation but simply because it is lazy and uninspired. It’s far too common to become lost and turned around because of walls of similar textures and the lack of objective signage. Colonial Marines feels in all aspects like a mod from a 2001 shooter. When the aliens do appear they look weird, moving like they’re suffering from the aftereffects of Isaac Clarke’s stasis charge. They’ll crawl from the walls and ceiling – the only cool part – and then stand there, practically lumbering towards you with clumsy claw swipes, just begging to be shottied. Their AI is woeful, allowing you to run past them most times without consequence, seeming to forget your existence the instant you move beyond their myopic field of focus.

This is a game that is literally unfinished. As NPCs talk to each other you can walk through their bodies, revealing ghoulish internal parts. It can be a slight amusement to situate yourself inside their bodies as they talk, viewing the world through the back of their mouths. Explosions look pathetic, to the point where you’ll cringe each time you use a grenade. Textures are bland, simple and repeated far too much. Computer monitors and electrical equipment are lighted with smudgy, barely-defined buttons and text. Level geometry continues to be simple and illogical, with sparse waypoint notifications as to what you should be doing. So you stumble around looking for something to interact with – a blurry keyboard or a door to cut open.

When human enemies enter into the game – because someone realised that even super-fans would become bored of shooting brain dead aliens the whole time – the action promises a slight breeze of hope. Alas, head shots are impossible and the AI equally as dumb as the aliens, allowing you to flank and slaughter them while yawning. You’ll open doors and watch them frozen for half a second, waiting dummies, before they switch into non-waiting mode and react pathetically to your presence.

The level design is forced and too tight to provide anything beyond strictly funnelled fights. Atop all this is the added annoyance of having to manually pick up ammo and armour. There are gameplay challenges that can be completed, which reward you with unlocked augmentations for your weapons. These are persistent across single player and multi, but your vanilla guns are so powerful – and the enemies so stupid – that you already feel vastly powerful to begin with. There is no incentive or need to look at the challenge list, nor – more importantly – is there any sense of achievement at the gaming equivalent of beating a homeless person.

Fan moments that should be euphoric are instead flaccid and sad. “Know how to use a powerloader?” your companion asks. You jump into the thing, move forward and … open a door. That’s all. You get to use it later on as well, whereupon you discover that it was a blessing to only be allowed twenty seconds inside the frustrating vehicle. Interaction is limited to lumbering movement and two attacks – cue the practically automated alien boss fight.

A measure of redemption can be found in the multiplayer, in particular Escape mode, which places four marines against four player-controlled aliens. The marines’ objective is to get from A to B without dying, while the alien players have the more enjoyable job of setting up ambushes via their ability to clamber through vents, spit acid and pounce. The unpredictability of multiplayer matches contrasts starkly with the single player experience, which itself might be slightly fun if you choose to play cooperatively, but we don’t recommend it. Even a bunch of quite well placed Easter Eggs don’t provide strong enough pull to make you endure the campaign unless you have to.

That we save one paragraph at the end to discuss multiplayer tells you exactly how much weight its existence should register when it comes to a purchase decision. It can be fun, but we’d suggest waiting until the game inevitably drops like a bomb during the next Steam sale. That said, it’s highly doubtful that time will help solve the lack of dedicated servers and low PC player base. If you’re lucky enough to connect to an Australian game, it can be enjoyable, but good luck being effective during the majority of ping-heavy matches.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is an embarrassment that should not have been released. The exact machinations that transpired to half bake this foetid blob of a shooter will no doubt be the focus of many feature articles in the months to come. Whether it is SEGA’s or Gearbox’s fault, the tragedy is that a great Aliens game is possible – it just doesn’t necessarily need to be a first person shooter. The sense of impending death from just a single alien is lost when you’re holding back laughter at Gearbox’s parody. For all the stamping of approved canon on Aliens: Colonial Marines, nobody can seriously say that this sits anywhere on the Aliens timeline.

Good:

• Visit locations from the film
• A handful of wink-wink Easter Egg moments
• Escape mode has potential

Bad:

• The aliens are a joke
• Broken AI across the board
• You can walk through characters and they’ll clip through walls and doors
• Headshots don’t register
• Bland textures and level design
• Embarrassing explosion effects

Members of the official Gearbox forums have spotted some promotional material for Aliens: Colonial Marines in Walmart, one of which reads “Team up with your friends to take on waves of increasingly difficult enemies in an all-new game mode”, by the name of “Bug Hunt”.

The image continues “Available March 19, 2013 via download”. So! Seems like a pretty open-and-shut case here: Aliens: Colonial Marines is getting a horde mode DLC next month. For $14.99 (or rather, probably $25 for Australians).

As the original poster on the Gearbox forums points out, “$14.99 value” indicates that it could be free for some users, or perhaps bundled free with something so that people can be charged $14.99 if they want to buy it separately later. What do you think? Horde mode seems a natural inclusion for me, especially against the xenomorphs.

Source: OXM

Did you enter our massive Aliens: Colonial Marines PC Collectors Edition Giveaway? No? Why not! In any case, there’s no time for recriminations. The competition is closed, but with 164 entries, judging was bound to take a while — so without any further ado, we present to you the ten worthy winners of this competition. Take a look inside!

New prototype weapons for the Colonial Marines

PfhorLoop

The Weyland-Yutani Executive Executioner Android (WYEEA – pronounced WEEEEYEEEAAAAAAA). Immediately terminating any Weyland-Yutani executive within 5km of an xenomorph nest has been shown to reduce the chance of xenomorphs being captured and then accidentally released in a failed bio weapons program by as much as 96%. This has been found to save more Colonial Marine casualties than any conceivable weapon directed at the xenomorphs themselves.

DaForce

USCM Weapons (experimental) Division introduces the M42A3 “Sharp Stick” Xenomorph Protection Device. Made from hardened Nano SteelTM (Weylan Yutani Bio Weapons Div.) is effectively a biomolecular acid proof bayonet, suitable for mounting upon M41A1 Pulse Rifles and other USCM rifles. No longer are Marines forced to expend ammo in an “eat this!” scenario. Simply place the muzzle of your weapon into any Xenomorph orrifice and release the trigger mechanism flinging 2 feet of “Sharp Stick” into the target. The 700 fpm extension speed will crush and pulverise any Xeno armour with ease and the retraction cleaning mechanism also keeps that pesky acid away from your face. Available now! Purchase today and keep it handy for close encounters!

Enki

The Soda Bomb is a small projectile containing large quantities of compressed rapid-expanding foam mixed with baking soda. When fired, it embeds itself into Xenomorph dermal tissue and pumps its contents into the target’s body. The foam will expand almost immediately within the body cavity causing massive swelling and internal organ and dermal tissue rupturing, while the baking soda simultaneously neutralises the acidic blood. Picture stepping on an overfilled custard doughnut. The foam then hardens rapidly, rendering target almost completely immobile should initial effects prove non-fatal, allowing significantly decreasing risks to personnel as they carry out additional termination procedures.

spkypwnsuall

WL-Y Mag-net Launcher Mk2: After horrible design flaws of the Mk1, such as missing the magnet components and being as strong as a wet paper bag, The Mag-net launcher is back with vengeance!

Designed with safety of captives in mind, and not much of a budget to work with, the new Mag-net launcher Mk2 comes with all the features you need to capture xenomorphs for your warfare needs without removing all their limbs and getting acid everywhere. By simply firing a remotely detonated net with magnetic seals, any xeno caught in your firing line will be pinned to the stations wall so fast you won’t have time to say “Ease down Ripley!” Of course, how you get it home is your problem. Not ours.

“Because giving Weyland-Yutani employees a weapon to capture more xenomorphs is a bright idea right?”

*Stock, trigger and ammunition not included.

Vid

M9000 sUnglasses. Direct from Weyland industries… putting the Sun in U…

These special glasses come with built in quip launchers so that all your sarcastic and pun filled lines can be delivered with ease. Try putting them on then delivering the line…it really works! Xenomorphs will simply explode with your wit! Their one weakness is a well delivered pun! Not only do they look cool they are also effective and blocking out the nasty weapon flashes from various weapons. Try combined with the flame thrower. The built in fans will keep your forehead lovely and cool while toasting Xenomorphs.

(c) Weyland Industries, batteries not included. Warning: extended use may result in own television show and memes, you’re THAT cool…

New breeds of xenomorph

zan121

A ventriloquist xeno that can quickly adapt to the acoustic environment of any space. It utilises its environment to reflect confusing or disorienting sounds. For example a marine might hear the sound of his friends beeping motion detector behind him when he is actually long deceased. or the scream of a xeno behind him at all times.

Markamus

Enormous Wounded Xeno. A giant heavily wounded alien, bleeding all over the place, which just crawls around bleeding everywhere, corroding everything with its highly acidic blood. Especially dangerous on military installations, it slowly dissolves structures, until occupants have no defensive advantage.

When the Enormous Wounded Xeno comes into contact with hostiles, it bleeds so hard that jets of blood spray out in every direction and when killed, bleeds even more than before. Like if you burst an above-ground pool. The Enormous Wounded Xeno is also the first Xenomorph to exhibit emotion, which takes the form of bleeding a lot.

Tajin

The Hateomorph. A tiny but very vicious xenomorph breed that jumps on the hand of unaware Marines like a facehugger would jump on your face. Once it has its victim in its glovelive grasp, it will force him to log into the forums where all the cool Colonial Marines hang out (like GON) and post hater comments about how Marines are just ripped off from WH40k or even Starcraft.

If you look carefully, you might sometimes spot screams for help (in very tiny letters) hidden in their posts. Though the hateomorph will immediately edit them out if he notices them.

Mr.Gomez

A new xenomorph: After “impregnation” by a face hugger this xeno, instead of killing its victim, acts as an advanced parasitic symbiote. The xeno grows inside the marine, quickly taking over the brain, absorbing all the memories, skills, mannerisms etc. The host cant survive without the xeno now, all organs of the body are entwined and synced with each other, body and soul the host has become a slave.. a unique appendage from the xeno comes out of the hosts mouth to “impregnate” other unfortunate victims, therefore becoming self sustaining away from the hive. this xeno can covertly destroy an entire platoon of marines from the inside out, towards the end the remaining marines wont know who is friend or foe..

meji

**Classified Weyland-Yutani**
Re: Research station 72a
New Xenomorph classification

Communication has been lost, previous Colonial Marine Recovery teams have failed to contain the situation sufficiently. Scientists of the facility were using Xenomorph DNA as a means to recreate extinct species of animals. Routine reports stopped shortly after a breakthrough. Remote access of security systems revealed a cause; Xenomorphs, seemingly crossbred with dinosaurs. Many species were identified; large, dangerous creatures, more impervious to weapons while appearing to retain their cruel intelligence.

Of alarm was a pteranodon-xenomorph hybrid, aloft on leathery wings, it’s long arms adorned with vast talons and a beak lined with vicious teeth. From upon high it dives upon it’s prey at phenomenal speeds. Telemetry indicates that the motion sensors are ineffective at early warning for it’s attacks. Extreme caution is advised when entering areas, particularly open areas, known to host this xenomorph.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to SEGA and Gearbox for supplying the prizes! Winners, please check your forum PMs very shortly for a message from me so I can grab your details. Thanks again, everybody!

The release of Aliens: Colonial Marines is so very, very close now, I can almost taste it. It tastes like burning. And battery acid. But what is just as exciting as knowing the game is coming out in a matter of days is knowing that more of it will be coming out in later days. That’s right, it’s been confirmed that Aliens: Colonial Marines will receive at least four DLC packs from March 2013 onward.

According to this posting on GameStop’s front page, there will also be a Season Pass for the aforementioned DLC, at least for the PC Master Race. It will be redeemable on Steam, and will cost approximately 30 American Dollars. There’s no listing on Steam yet, so we are yet to see if we will be slugged with an Australia Tax, but $30 seems fairly reasonable and I would be surprised to see it jump much higher.

Lastly, in other Aliens news, there is a new trailer that will outline some of the special abilities of either side for you. On the Marine’s side, they seem to be ripped fairly straight from the film, featuring flamethrowers and the like. On Team Xenomorph though, there are a few new surprises. I am particularly looking forward to the Crusher.

Check it out below, won’t you? Is there anything featured in there that you’re particularly looking forward to? Or something not featured that you wish was in the game? Or are you just so excited that you can’t keep your girlish squeals in? Let us know in the comments!

If you’re at all looking forward to Aliens: Colonial Marines next month, then you’ll probably enjoy watching this trailer. Other reasons you may enjoy this trailer: gratuitous swearing, a dude grappling an alien with a power-lifter, and some good ol’ Marine Corps shouting.

(Click here to download this trailer in HD from our file library)

Did I mention we’re giving away 10 Collectors Editions of the game on PC? Because we totally are.

Hey, you there! Do you like shooting aliens? In the bowels of spaceships and the dark corridors of abandoned buildings? Of course you do. What about also being those aliens in multiplayer and shredding the faces of your friends? You can do that also, in Aliens: Colonial Marines, which is heading our way on February 12. To celebrate, SEGA have given us 10 Collectors Editions of the game on PC to give away, and even thrown in a bunch of shirts for our lucky winners as well.

How do I enter?

Leave a comment describing in 150 words or less either:

a) A new type of weapon for the Colonial Marines to use against the xenomorphs, or
b) A new breed of xenomorph, bred specifically to defeat Colonial Marines

The five best entries from each category will win. Entries don’t have to be serious (although serious is fine!) so feel free to be funny, deadpan, sardonic, surreal or even absolutely insane. Please note that no images are allowed, however — just words.

So what’s in the Collectors Edition?

Check this:

• High Quality Resin Powerloader Figurine (approx. 16.5 CM tall) in Limited Edition Xeno Hive Box
• USCM Dossier
• Exlusive in game content:
  
  • Four Playable Movie Characters
  • Additional Marines Character Customization Options
  • Ripley’s Flamethrower
  • Exclusive Multiplayer Weapons
  • Sonic Electronic Ball Breakers
  • Phase Plasma Rifle
  • Exclusive Game Level
  • USCM Academy Firing Range
• Mission Brief
• USS Sephora Schematic
• Recruitment Card
• LV-426 Recon Photo
• USCM Iron-on Badges
• USCM Graduation Certificate

Things to know

This competition is open until 11:59 PM ACDT (Adelaide time) on Wednesday 6 February 2013 and is open to Australian residents only.

It is governed by the Terms and Conditions listed on this page.

Good luck!

Here at games.on.net, we love two things: PC gaming, and reasonable prices. Put them together and you don’t have Aliens: Colonial Marines, which may have released its PC specs today but also revealed its inflated Australian price: $30 more than everybody else is paying.

Buying the game on Steam will cost you $79.95, while US and UK players only have to pay the equivalent of AUD $49 and $48 respectively. Thankfully our pals at Green Man Gaming have it for a very reasonable $49, and there’s probably some sort of mad discount code floating around the site too. We are of course a partner of Green Man Gaming as we outlined here, but that doesn’t mean you should pass up a bargain!

In any case, you’ll still need to check out those PC requirements — and here they are:

Minimum Specs: Operating System: Windows XP SP3. Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor. RAM: 2GB RAM (XP),2GB RAM (Vista). HD: 20GB free hard disk space. Optical Drive: DVD. Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible. Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 8500/ATI Radeon HD 2600 (256 minimum).

Recommended Specs: Operating System: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7. Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Quad CoreProcessor. RAM: 2GB RAM. HD: 20GB free hard disk space. Optical Drive: DVD. Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible. VideoCard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX560/ATI Radeon HD 5850 (512 minimum).

Other Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, DirectX 9, Microsoft .NET 4 Framework, Visual C++ Redistributable 2005, Visual C++ Redistributable 2008, Visual C++ Redistributable 2010, and AMD CPU Drivers (XP Only/AMD Only).

Source: Thanks, PalZer0

Aliens: Colonial Marines saw some mention in our Most Anticipated Game of 2013 list, and with good reason: it basically looks like Left 4 Dead + xenomorphs, which is a winning combination by anybody’s standards. To end out the year, SEGA and Gearbox have released this new story trailer, framed and cut very much like one for an Aliens movie, which shows some fairly cringeworthy dialogue but also hints at what could be a compelling story. Take a look.

As a die-hard fan of the Alien franchise and shooters that preferably involve aliens, I am indescribably excited for Aliens: Colonial Marines. And I am looking forward to playing it with my friends. So this trailer, featuring Survivor multiplayer mode is very exciting.

Get an exclusive look (only 19,000 other people have seen it!) at the multiplayer below, and let us know what you think. Are you ready to fight the fear? Also, the aliens?

Source: Gamespot

It’s been mentioned briefly before that upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines will fill in some of the blanks left by the third film in the Alien franchise, but in a panel at New York Comic Con, the development team at Gearbox — plus special guest Lance Henriksen — spoke out about what they really mean by that.

“There were two itches that needed to be scratched,” Randy Pitchford told the audience. “Anyone who has seen the Aliens movies shares these itches. The first one is, there was some story you felt was supposed to happen after that first movie, and Aliens 3 was not it. Once we knew that universe is larger and there were colonial marines, we wished for a bigger, wider experience. We never got that. The other itch is, the opportunity to become a character in the movies in a video game medium, to be a hero in this place… we want to be colonial marines.”

“In a video game we can live the fantasy of being one of these guys and living in this situation, filling the gap in the story that should have been filled after Aliens,” Pitchford said. “That became the nut we needed to crack.”

The panel also confirmed the inclusion of fan service in the game, with a small part of the gameplay the audience witnessed including mention of Newt. “If you’ve seen the film it’s fan service, and if you have seen them it’s content,” said Pitchford. “I like that approach. Playing with that sort of dissonance between the two entry points, whether you have previous information or you don’t, and making it work for all minds was a trick.”

“We’re the guys carrying the Aliens torch now,” lead writer Mikey Neumann concluded. “We wanted to make sure we found the right promises to fill.”

Source: Polygon

As a fan of the Alien vs. Predator series (of games, not the movies — they were abhorrent), my initial reaction to hearing about Aliens: Colonial Marines was one of concern. Predator was my favourite choice for multiplayer, and arguably the best of the single player campaigns. Fortunately, my fears were quelled by my hands-on multiplayer demo with Gearbox’s foray into Ridley Scott’s universe. Aliens are rad, and mowing them down with pulse rifles is — yes, you guessed it. Even more rad.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is set seventeen weeks after the events of Aliens, and places the player among the rescue team sent to find the crew of the Sulaco, albeit fourteen and a half weeks overdue. In an impromptu show-floor interview with Gearbox Community Manager Chris Faylor, I learned that Colonial Marines is intended to be a 100% canonical entry in the Aliens universe, thanks to a tight relationship with 20th Century Fox. This means that everything, including the new xenotypes produced by Gearbox, are canonical and may well be used in future movies or television series.

Colonial Marines feels like an old-school shooter. From the way that the marines move, all the way down to the the angular level design, A:CM delivers an experience that feels familiar, but includes features and a presentation generally associated with modern titles. The framerate was a rock-solid sixty frames per second, though it appeared that antialiasing had been disabled. It is impossible to know what kind of hardware was running in the demo PCs, so it is plausible that this impression may have been skewed by over-specced machines.

As often happens with multiplayer floor demos, I was just beginning to hit my stride when it ended, but in the seconds leading up to the demo’s close, I mowed down three soldier-class aliens with my semi-automatic shotgun, including one that was winding up for a close quarters execution. I felt like a golden god, sent to whatever planet we were on to take (alien) heads, and chew (caustic) bubblegum — a feeling only heightened by the fact that we were playing against members of Team Immunity. These guys are not only professional gamers, they had also been playing the game for at least three days straight. It was a nice moment.

The weapons feel as though they have a true weight to them, which is best reflected in the marines’ movement. At their fastest the marines move at what feels like a cautious jog, when walking their weapon is raised, poised to fire upon any piece of shiny carapace that moves. The sound direction really captures the feel of the films, mostly thanks to the twin screams of clashing aliens and pulse rifles.

Players are able to choose from five different customisable loadouts before they spawn, which Chris confirmed can be populated with gear unlocked by progression in multiplayer, singleplayer, and drop-in-drop-out co-op. My go-to weapon combination was the pulse rifle/semi-auto shotgun, because flexibility is important. In practice though, the shotgun was by far the most used weapon in my arsenal.

Due to their enhanced, green-tinged vision, an alien will often see you before you see it — meaning that by the time you’re ready to fire, they’re already all over you. Shotguns rule the day, though Team Immunity did a good job of staying out of our direct firing line. Once an alien begins slashing at you with their claws, your vision becomes obscured by disobedient blood leaving your body without permission. Wildly unloading shotgun blasts into the red haze often bought me a few precious moments of life before falling to another of the seemingly endless horde of professional gamers/aliens.

In each round of the demo, both teams received a power-up that with proper use, could turn the tide of the battle in their favour. The marines get access to a smart gun, which spawns as a pickup in a random location on the map, while a member of the alien team will randomly spawn as a Crusher, a bull-like alien with an egregious amount of health and a charging attack. how often these power-ups spawn is still being tweaked.

While queuing, I was able to observe the members of Team Immunity as they both figuratively and literally dissected their opponents. The alien soldiers were able to move quickly along any surface in the environment in order to close on their prey and claw them into a fine scarlet paste. It appeared that the only aliens in play for the demo were soldiers which also had a first-person tail attack that could be used to deal damage from the walls or ceiling. Chris was eager to detail the other alien types that would be present in the final product: The Lurker has less health than the Soldier, but is faster and has a pounce attack. The Spitter has a ranged attack which needs to be charged up before it can be unleashed. Charging the attack causes the spitter’s head to glow, giving away its position and warning marines of the attack.

The Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer demo brought back strong and fond memories of hours-long AvP and AvP2 LAN sessions. Only time will tell whether the singleplayer campaign can elicit such a reaction from fans of the movies. Aliens: Colonial Marines is due for release on February 12 2013 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

You might remember a couple of months ago, there was a bit of an uproar about the lack of female playable characters in Aliens: Colonial Marines. Well, it turns out that when producer Brian Burleson said at E3 that there were no female characters, he meant in the E3 demo.

Randy Pitchford has told Kotaku that there are female characters in the game, but he was not ready to release the details yet. There will be warrior women in both co-op and competitive multiplayer, and they will be as fully customisable and have as many personalisation options as their male counterparts.

I, for one, am relieved, as I am looking forward to recreating my beloved Vasquez and standing as close to the screen as possible and putting my head on her virtual shoulder. Oh, Vasquez, I miss you so. TMI?

Source: Kotaku

A new multiplayer mode called ‘Escape’ has been revealed for Gearbox’s upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines, which will pit two teams of four players against each other in a fight to the death.

The mode sees the Colonial Marines trying to evacuate from an area and reach a safe zone, while the xenomorph players try and pick them off as fast possible. It sounds a bit Left 4 Dead-ish, and quite frankly that’s just fine with me. I always thought that game could use more aliens.

Source: VG247

Quick – when I say ‘Aliens’, what do you think of? Okay, apart from H.R. Giger’s Xenomorphs. Is it Ripley? It’s Ripley, right? Of course it is. Because she’s the main protagonist through FOUR movies, while simultaneously being one of the strongest female characters in any film.

Even if we narrow it down to ‘Aliens’ – the film Aliens: Colonial Marines draws most of its inspiration from – there are three other strong female characters in that one alone (RIP Vasquez). So how, do you think, Gearbox ‘forgot’ to add women to the multiplayer portion of Aliens: Colonial Marines? The “most badass military outfit in the galaxy”, and not one woman? If you think this is an embarrassing oversight, there is a petition to change it over here – do give it a good signing.

Source: VG247

“It’s like Call of Duty meets Dead Space.”

I’m talking with Matt Powers, Senior Producer on Aliens: Colonial Marines. While Sega and Gearbox are still keeping mum on anything to do with the game’s single player, they’ve been keen on sharing the multiplayer experience.

Power told games.on.net today the team is attempting to strike a tone between the heavy-hitting action of a title like Call of Duty, with the dread of a horror feature such as Dead Space (Although, judging by the footage we’ve seen so far of Dead Space 3, they may end up being pretty much the same thing).

Powers, who’s previously worked on Unreal Tournament titles, four Medal of Honor games and the first Modern Warfare, says he wants to shake up the usual multiplayer dynamic. “By having xenomorphs play against the marines, we’re trying to differentiate it from the crowd. It’s a whole different experience, being able to upgrade your alien, such as the claws and other features. Hopefully we can appeal to [core gamers], and give them something different.”

In the multiplayer hands-on demo shown at E3 – which we played with a gamepad on a PC – one group of marines and one group of xenomorphs fought in a type of team deathmatch scenario. It’s pretty standard fare on the marines side, with upgradable weapons, a motion sensor to detect incoming aliens – an inclusion film fans will enjoy – and the usual additions like grenades.

But Powers is right, in that the xenomorphs are a little more interesting and change the dynamic of gameplay. Being able to crawl around on walls, move faster and jump higher than your bumbling human opponents does bring a sense of dread to an otherwise typical deathmatch scenario. If you’re not paying attention, you never know where the enemy is coming from, and you have to sacrifice your defensive stance to check your scanner.

This is what Dead Space tried to do and failed, creating an alien-versus-human scenario based on fear. The map we played on today was a dimly lit construction site, with all types of caves and walls for the xenomorphs to climb and blend into. It’s jolting to see your enemy leap from the shadows, and there’s precious little time to react.

There is some bad news, however, as Powers wouldn’t go into too much detail about whether the PC version of the game will be treated with as much care as the console versions. However, he did offer some encouragement, pointing out that “We’re playing on the PC right now… and we’re confident this is going to be a consistent experience on all platforms.”

There’ll be some unique content for the Wii U and its new tablet screen, he says, but apart from that, the experience will be intact. Unfortunately, there’s no information yet on whether this means players will be shafted with a lower quality user interface or options, but Powers seems confident the “core gamers” will be happy with the PC experience.

“The story is really great, it’s an action experience but also one full of tension. We want to combine some things, give it a fresh take – and I think the multiplayer is a good place to start.”